The Rochester Park Band At the Opening of Ellison Park in 1927

On October 1, 1927, the Rochester Park Band played for the Dedication and Opening of Ellison Park.  Excited visitors arrived from towns throughout the county.  People like Mr. and Mrs. O.L. Shult, and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ginegawa and their daughter, Freda, all from Webster, joyfully attended that day.  

1931 Ellison Park, photographer Charles Zoller, courtesy of GEM

Picnickers spread their lunches on the tables and cooked their meats on the fireplaces, scattered thoughtfully along the banks of Irondequoit Creek.  As the smell of burning charcoal wafted through the air, children frolicked, shrieking and laughing on this wonderful Opening Day.  Though a threat of rain had hovered the previous week, in fact, the day was splendid, with temperatures in the 70s, the rain waiting to fall a couple of days later.  

At 2:15pm, Hermann Dossenbach, Director, picked up his baton, held it in mid air, hesitated for just a few moments, and then — woosh! — the Rochester Park Band, in their handsome cream-colored suits, commenced with the magnificent sounds of the brass instruments - the cornets, trumpets, trombones, tubas filling the air.

1916 Rochester Park Band at Durand-Eastman Opening Day

Though we don’t know the actual list of selections for this day’s events, the Park Band may have played a piece from Victor Herbert’s well-loved operetta, The Wizard of the Nile, with its signature phrase, “Am I a wiz?”  Or the ever popular “Londonderry Air”  with the Ellison Park crowd singing along to the “Oh, Danny boy” lyrics.    These pieces had been performed by the Park Band earlier in the year at Ontario Beach and for the Lilac Festival at Highland Park. 

Rochester Park Band

The Park Band excelled at presenting a mix of classical and popular tunes, and so they may have serenaded the crowd with the Minuet from Mozart’s Don Juan, and then brought a smile to their audience’s faces as they entertained with, “Sam, the Accordion Man” and “After I Say I’m Sorry” — they played all of these tunes the previous August at a street dance on Alexander Street in Rochester, between South and Mount Hope Avenues.  

The Rochester Park Band, begun in 1904, was famous during the early decades of the twentieth century, and not just in Rochester - they played all over the western part of New York State, in Buffalo’s Delaware Park, and to crowds of 10,000-20,000 people in Syracuse’s Burnet Park, and also in Geneva’s Lakeside Park, where the evening event was lit by hundreds of Japanese

Theodore Dossenbach

lanterns.  Theodore Dossenbach, my great-grandfather, was its first director and was loved by all.  Handsome and charming, he was often said to be generous with his encores.  

On many Christmas Eves, Theodore and his Park Band, accompanied by Rochester’s Santa Claus (Frank G. Newell) and other dignitaries, drove in trucks (offered for use by the Rochester Stamping Company) throughout the neighborhoods, playing Christmas carols, pausing at Mr. Eastman’s and Mayor Edgerton’s house and others, visiting the Home for the Friendless and and the Rescue Mission and the hospitals, and delivering presents to the special children at St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum.  

Theodore continued as Director of the Park Band until his death, too soon at age 53, in 1924, at which point his brother, Hermann, took over.  Hermann was quite famous in his own right, having founded and conducted the Rochester Orchestra, a precursor to today’s Rochester Philharmonic; he also co-founded a little school called the DKG Institute of Musical Art, which George Eastman eventually purchased and made into the Eastman School of Music.  Both Hermann and Theodore Dossenbach, children of poor German immigrants, were members of the Dossenbach Quartet/Quintet which played at Mr. Eastman’s East Avenue home for his twice-weekly musicales and big parties from 1905-1919.  

Ellison Park Opening Day,
Albert Stone, courtesy RMSC

The crowd at Ellison Park, on this magical Opening Day, would have been thrilled to hear the Rochester Park Band!  The concert concluded with a rousing rendition of The National Air (The Star Spangled Banner), during which everyone proudly stood together. Now buoyed up by the music, they listened to remarks by Frank T. Ellison, donor of the Park Lands - can you imagine the applause given him for his generosity?  Also, Dr. Arthur T. Parker, former state archaeologist and director of the Rochester Municipal Museum (eventually to become the Rochester Museum and Science Center) gave an address entitled, “The Red Man’s Gateway to the Genesee Country.”  

Historical pageants then dominated the day.  The Boy Scouts presented a picture of La Salle’s first visit to Indian Landing in 1669 - and they were able to do this on the exact spot where it occurred all those years ago.  Also near the historic Indian Landing, the Girl Scouts demonstrated pioneering skills in three stone fireplaces.  

Chief Freeman Johnson,
Photographer Charles Zoller, courtesy GEM

The Seneca Indians, members of the Tonawanda Reservation, and descendants of the Seneca Iroquois, who once owned all of the Genesee country, proudly took part in the dedication ceremonies.   Chief Freeman Johnson was there, as well as his great-aunt 

Go-wat-ha (Nancy Black Squirrel), who was 110 years old.  

It was a great day, to be sure.  It had been well-advertised in all the surrounding papers, such as Fairport’s Herald-Mail, the Medina Daily Journal, Rochester’s The Daily Record (covering “Law, Real Estate, Finance and General Intelligence”) and The Democrat and Chronicle, The Troy Times, the Niagara Falls Gazette, and also in the Long Island Nassau Daily Review (even though it was printed a week after the event). 

Next time you visit Ellison Park, think back to this event of the past.  As you walk the nature trails, remember Frank Ellison, whose generosity we benefit from to this very day.  And, in your imagination, hear the magnificent music of the Rochester Park Band and let their proud strains lift you higher, and then step taller and appreciate all that we have had and still have.